Fiddlehead

Uncommon card · No. 165547

Fiddleheads or fiddlehead greens are the furled fronds from a fledgling fern, harvested for use as a vegetable. Left on the plant, each fiddlehead would unroll into a new frond (circinate vernation). As fiddleheads are harvested early in the season, before the frond has opened and reached its full height, they are cut fairly close to the ground. Fiddleheads from brackens contain ptaquiloside, a compound associated with bracken toxicity, and thiaminase. Not all species contain ptaquiloside, such as Diplazium esculentum, a fern with fiddleheads regularly consumed in parts of East Asia, which differs from bracken (Pteridium aquilinum). The fiddlehead resembles the curled ornamentation (called a scroll) on the end of a stringed instrument, such as a fiddle. It is also called a crozier, after the curved staff used by bishops, which has its origins in the shepherd's crook.

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